Terry's Elections Guide and Predictions: Massachusetts
Governor (Open, Republican-held)
Deval Patrick (D) 58 - Kerry Healey (R) 29 - Christy Mihos (I) 11
Republicans have had the governor's office in Massachusetts since Michael Dukakis left in 1990, but their run ends this time. Traditionally, Republicans have won this office by portraying themselves as moderates who will check the heavily Democratic, machine-driven state legislature. Unfortunately for them, Mitt Romney screwed that up by deciding he wanted to run for president, openly disparaging Massachusetts on the pre-campaign circuit and vetoing the massively popular morning-after pill. The other reason this election is so lopsided is that Deval Patrick is using the Republican playbook against them: as a former national officeholder (he was the chief deputy to the U.S. Attorney General for civil rights in the Clinton years) and his business background to portray himself as a pragmatic type who won't buy into the sausage-and-legislation atmosphere in the Massachusetts state house. Assuming Ken Blackwell loses in Ohio, Patrick will become the second African-American governor in the last half-century, probably longer.